The Royal Cornwall Show will remember Rex Curtis today as engines start up at the 2026 event, paying tribute to a man who spent more than 50 years at the heart of its Vintage Section. Curtis, of Roche, died on May 12 aged 83.

For many visitors, exhibitors and organisers, he was the man often seen driving across the fields in his buggy at the showground, a familiar figure whose presence became part of the show itself. Today’s tribute comes as the show opens with the machinery that he helped celebrate for decades.

The timing matters because this year’s show is not just marking another summer date in the calendar. It is also the first opportunity to honour Curtis in front of the people who knew his work best, at the place where he spent so much of his life helping to keep the Vintage Section running.

Organisers said Curtis was already helping run the show long before many of them first walked through the gates, a measure of how deeply he was woven into its history. They said he dedicated countless hours to organising, stewarding and ensuring standards remained as high as ever, work that kept the section steady year after year.

That long service is what gives today’s tribute its weight, and it also leaves one thing unsaid: the show has not set out what form the commemoration will take once the engines start up. What is clear is that the Royal Cornwall Show is choosing to mark Curtis not with a passing mention, but at the point where his legacy is most visible, among the machines and the fields he knew so well.